Chapter 2864: The Emperor’s Counterattack

The hall masters and vice hall masters had yet to return from their journey to the medicinal garden. Now, apart from the Darkstar Emperor, there was not a single Primordial realm expert in the capital city.

The Darkstar Emperor stood atop the divine hall and gazed down silently at the ruined city, quietly watching his countless clansmen move away the corpses and clean up the battlefield. He said nothing for a very long time.

The entire capital city was engulfed in a sorrowful and miserable atmosphere. It had stopped possessing its former, resplendent glory a long time ago. It seemed especially repressive.

High in the air, the sacrificial altar had yet to vanish. The Virtuous Sage of Heaven’s figure that had clearly become even fainter seemed like it could disperse with merely a gust of wind. He stood on the altar, gazing at the Darkstar Emperor who had already returned. The corner of his lips that were hidden from everyone curled into a victorious smile.

“Your majesty, did you retrieve the divine beast?” The Virtuous Sage of Heaven appeared beside the Darkstar Emperor silently. His voice was stern, clearly anxious.

The Darkstar Emperor said nothing. He stared at the city below as if he did not hear the Virtuous Sage of Heaven at all.

Only a while later did he begin speaking slowly. His voice was bitter and filled with doubt. “Virtuous Sage of Heaven, let me ask you, did you really fail to notice Kun Tian had already been replaced by someone else?”

The Virtuous Sage of Heaven let out a long sigh and lamented painfully. “It was my mistake. I never thought this person would have a treasure that could mask his presence perfectly. Although treasures like that do exist in the Saints’ World, basically all of them are god artifacts at the very least. They can’t be brought into the Darkstar World. Even in the Saints’ World, I have never seen or heard of such a wondrous treasure that can be brought into the Darkstar World and offer such a great disguise.

“By the look of things now, Kun Tian had already been replaced the moment he lost his memories. I didn’t think he’d actually manage to remain hidden right under my watch for so long. Sigh, I also have an inescapable responsibility over the failure of the great ceremony this time. I am the greatest offender of the entire race.” The Virtuous Sage of Heaven’s voice was stern and filled with guilt, together with a deep sense of bitterness.

As soon as he heard the Virtuous Sage of Heaven mention the power of the disguise, the Darkstar Emperor could not help but recall all the contact he had with Kun Tian after Kun Tian had lost his memories, as well as the ability that Jian Chen had displayed earlier where he could completely conceal his presence. The Darkstar Emperor immediately became resentful.

Before long, the hall masters and vice hall masters who had rushed off towards the medicinal garden all returned, gathering in the capital city once again.

However, when they saw the horrible state of the capital city, all the Primordial realm experts became heavy-hearted. Their faces were stern and gloomy.

The tenth hall master Feng Xue was senseless. Her face was filled with sorrow, and she was despondent.

“I didn’t think Kun Tian was actually just an impersonation. In other words, it’s extremely likely that our hall master was killed by him.” A vice hall master of the eighth divine hall ground his teeth.

No one answered him. The eighth hall master’s death was suspicious, and he had been in the Two World Mountains with the person who impersonated Kun Tian back then. There was no longer any doubt over how he died.

The person who impersonated Kun Tian did indeed possess this strength.

Not to mention that the eighth hall master had been in the Two World Mountains, so his strength had been suppressed. Meanwhile, the imposter was an outsider, so they were immune to the suppression of the Two World Mountains to a certain degree.

A great difference already existed between their strengths in the first place. Coupled with the further suppression, the eighth hall master obviously could not escape the clutches of death.

“Everyone, listen up. Immediately assemble the citizens of our race. We’ll sacrifice our blood and carry out a ritual to gather the will of the entire race and cast the ultimate curse,” the Darkstar Emperor ordered resolutely.

All of the Primordial realm experts were alarmed by that.

“Your majesty, do we really have to do this?”

“Your majesty, we still haven’t reached that level of danger yet. The enemy is powerful, but we can still take him on in battle…”

The Darkstar Emperor glanced past everyone coldly and said frigidly, “The Fruit of Nurturing Ways has already fallen into the outsider’s hands. Once he breaks through, the consequences will be unfathomable. We have to kill him no matter what before he breaks through.”

……

…

In the Two World Mountains, Jian Chen dragged his severely injured body that had already been reduced to ruins through the mountainous forest in a hurry. He erased all of his presence, so his body gave off no energy at all. He seemed like a ghost as he shot through the air silently. Even all the Life-devouring Beasts scattered in the surroundings failed to discover him.

The injuries he had sustained during the battle against the Darkstar Emperor were far too heavy. In particular, when the seal had smashed him into the ground after it had unleashed the might of a medium quality god artifact, he had sustained almost lethal damage. If it were not for the great vitality and recovery he had been endowed with from the Chaotic Body, he would have never lasted until now.

His current situation could no longer be described as miserable. If a regular person saw him, they would probably cry out in utter fear, “Demon!”

Even his head had cracked open, vaguely revealing his glowing soul hidden inside. His entire face was a bloody mess, with absolutely no facial features remaining. Half of his flesh had vanished from the top half of his body, and part of his chest had already been reduced to shreds completely. None of the organs in his body were complete, and even a small part of his left arm had been cut off. He was a ghastly sight to behold.

Although he had received such severe damage, Jian Chen’s life force was still extremely vigorous. Every piece of his flesh, or even every droplet of blood, contained powerful life force. The life force was currently stimulating his Chaotic Body. As such, his wounds gradually took a turn for the better.

Jian Chen constantly changed directions, zig-zagging about through the depths of the Two World Mountains like a headless fly, but the mask hid his presence, so he was not afraid of Life-devouring Beasts discovering him.

Finally, after covering who knew how much distance in the Two World Mountains, Jian Chen stopped and collapsed against a towering tree, heaving for air.

However, the moment he made contact with the tree, a rack suddenly opened up in the tree’s trunk that stood several hundred meters tall, like an eye had silently opened up. In the next moment, all the branches of the tree suddenly began to dance about, draping down immediately and turning into sharp vines that wrapped around Jian Chen as he leaned against the tree.

Jian Chen was swallowed immediately, having been binded by countless tree branches. He seemed like a great cocoon.

The towering tree happened to be a Life-devouring Beast!

Not all the Life-devouring Beasts in the Two World Mountains were creatures. Every single flower and blade of grass, every single pebble and grain of sand, had the possibility of developing intelligence and becoming a Life-devouring Beast.

The great tree used its countless branches to envelop Jian Chen, clearly using a special method to devour Jian Chen’s life force.

But very soon, the great tree began to tremble. The entire tree swayed about, more and more violently, more and more viciously.

As it tried devouring Jian Chen, the tree’s life force did not increase. Instead, it decreased at a terrifying rate until the entire tree withered and rapidly shrank.

It failed to devour Jian Chen, having been devoured by Jian Chen instead.

In a couple of seconds, the sturdy, towering tree had been completely reduced to a piece of dead wood, having lost all of its life force.

“The life force of a measly Godking Life-devouring Beast is still too little for me, and the life force hides an imprint that is difficult to remove. Whatever, I’ll use it for now to heal. It’ll be better than just the self-recovery of the Chaotic Body at the very least. I can spend some more time to refine away the imprint slowly later on,” Jian Chen thought before allowing the branches to wrap around him, having lost all of their life force and been reduced to dead wood. He remained there peacefully as he healed slowly.

Under his urgings, his recovery rate immediately sped up, but the injuries he had sustained this time were far too heavy. If he wanted to make a complete recovery, it would take him quite some time.

Jian Chen was reluctant to spend too much time healing, so he took out various recovery pills from his Space Ring and wolfed them down like candy.

These recovery pills had come from the outsiders. They were not of high quality, but he had plenty of them, so it was better than nothing.

Afterwards, he took out many God Tier heavenly resources from his Space Ring. He no longer cared whether it was a waste or not anymore. After splitting them up based on their type and effects, he began consuming the ones beneficial to recovery.

These God Tier heavenly resources had all come from the Darkstar race’s medicinal garden. Jian Chen had already harvested the entire garden when the ripening of the Fruit of Nurturing Ways had been accelerated with the temporal crystals. He collected all the heavenly resources that he deemed good enough. There were all sorts and varieties. Now, he happened to have a use for them.

With the assistance of these God Tier heavenly resources, Jian Chen’s recovery rate immediately sped up by quite a lot. His lost flesh and blood regrew, his organs were reconstructed, and even the small part severed from his left arm had recovered.

Regrowing limbs was nothing difficult even for cultivators with cultivations as low as Godhood, let alone Jian Chen who had reached the Primordial realm and cultivated the Chaotic Body.

As Jian Chen healed, there was no peace among the Darkstar race. They captured all the outsiders, and the Darkstar race began interrogating every single one of them to collect all the information and news they could get their hands on regarding Jian Chen.

The Hundred Saint City had also received some special care from the Darkstar race. Everyone had been escorted to the capital city. None of the fifty-two organisations who remained in the Hundred Saint City because of the fifth divine hall’s protection managed to escape this miserable fate. All of their sacrificial Godkings were executed, while their attendants had all been interrogated through torture. The Darkstar race had even used methods akin to soul searching on them. After they had served their use, the Darkstar race would still end up mercilessly executing them.

This time, the Darkstar race treated the outsiders with unprecedented cruelty and viciousness. It was not only because Kun Tian’s imposter had once protected them, but also because the Hundred Saint City had taken part in the operation to disrupt and stop the great ceremony.

The artifact spirit of the Hundred Saint City used all of the energy in the city and offered up its life to launch an alarming strike that kept the Darkstar Emperor busy, which created an opportunity for Jian Chen, allowing him to easily steal the divine beast they wanted to sacrifice.

Otherwise, under the Darkstar Emperor’s watch, it would have never been so easy for Jian Chen to escape with Sacredfeather. He might have even failed.

As a result, the Darkstar race included the Hundred Saint City in their grievances. In particular, the Darkstar Emperor even hated the Hundred Saint City as much as Jian Chen.

The prodigies in the Hundred Saint City all cried out over the injustice, as the artifact spirit’s behaviour truy had nothing to do with them. It had been completely beyond their control. However, why would the Darkstar race listen to them? Even after they discovered these people had absolutely no idea what had happened through interrogation, they still placed all the blame on their organisations.

With the puny strength of these prodigies, it was indeed impossible for them to achieve something like this. However, the Hundred Saint City had been personally forged by the peak clans of the Saints’ World after all. With the exceptional abilities of these peak clans, they seemed to be capable of almost miraculous feats in the eyes of the Darkstar race.

As a result, the prodigies of the Hundred Saint City truly were unable to offer up a convincing explanation and distance themselves from this incident.